16 BULLETIN 698, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
RECENT AGRICULTURAL HISTORY. 
Not more than 15 or 20 years ago the Panhandle was occupied 
by immense cattle ranches, used only for grazing purposes. The 
dense growth of short but nutritious grasses, chiefly buffalo grass and 
blue grama, furnished both winter and summer pasturage for count- 
less numbers of beef cattle, which had no other feed from weaning 
time to marketing. Under this system from 15 to 40 acres of grazing 
land were required for each animal, depending on the nature of the 
grass cover, the character of the season, and the time of year. 
Between 1890 and 1900, conditions in the stock-ranch industry 
became unsatisfactory and a change began. Overstocking the 
range had resulted in heavy losses during seasons of drought and dur- 
ing severe winters. A call for feeding crops suited to the Plains was 
coming from the ranchers. The demand for new, cheap lands for 
homes and crop production was increasing. The large ranches were- 
being divided and portions sold for farms. This process is still going 
on throughout the range country. 
Most of the settlers came from the more humid States of the 
Mississippi Valley area, where conditions are almost entirely different. 
Some of them brought the proceeds of high-priced lands and invested 
heavily; others came with only meager equipment and financial 
resources. Few of them had knowledge of the crop varieties or 
cropping methods most likely to be successful under the rigorous 
conditions prevailing on the high, dry plains. Most of them came 
expecting to grow the crops they had previously grown in more humid 
sections. An increasing demand for information came from new 
settlers who wanted suitable field crops and from ranchmen who 
wanted feeding crops. 
THE CEREAL FIELD STATIONS. 
Tn response to the increasing demand for information on dry-land 
crops, experimental work was begun by the Office of Cereal Investiga- 
tions in 1903. Experiments were conducted for three years at 
Channing, Tex., on the X I T Ranch. In 1906 the work was trans- 
ferred to Amarillo, Tex., where it has since been conducted. ‘The 
work there was started on farm No. 1, situated 1 mile southwest of 
the town. In 1910 it was transferred to farm No. 2, which lies 
about 2 miles northeast of the town. 
Amarillo is located in what is known on the Plains as ‘‘tight’’ land, 
a dark, clay loam, bearing a close turf of buffalo and grama grasses. 
The average rainfall is about 21 inches annually. This location is 
fairly representative of a considerable part of the Panhandle. The 
results obtained there are applicable to most of the Panhandle and 
to small adjacent portions of New Mexico and Oklahoma. 
